What Congress Looked Like From Inside the Eisenhower White House
By Stephen Hess
As a parting gift to each of us who served on President Eisenhower‘s staff, our
colleagues Fred Fox and Jim Lambie compiled White House…Staff Book…1953-61. It
was something like a high school yearbook, with photos and bios of the graduates.1 After
nearly a half century, it‘s a useful place to start memory-jogging on who was there and
how Congress looked to us.
It‘s also a way to keep in perspective the differences in White House staffs, then
and now. First, there‘s the matter of size. Ours was tiny. On most days we could all have
lunch at the same time in one small oblong room in the West Wing basement. In
compiling their staff list, Fox and Lambie didn‘t give us the key to who was in and who
was out, but my hunch is that they included only those with White House Staff Mess
privileges. I will return to the Mess and its importance later; still, I think they chose
realistically, even though this produced a couple of anomalies, such as including Milton
Eisenhower, Ike‘s brother and President of Johns Hopkins, of whom they wrote, ―He
gave his service to the President on various occasions at home and abroad and was a
familiar figure around the White House.‖ Also Robert Montgomery, the actor-director:
―During the 1952 campaign, he became a television consultant to the President, and since
then he has come down [from New York] to the White House whenever needed.‖
One hundred-three names made the A-List for serving at some point during
Eisenhower‘s two terms. Exclude 15 military aides, such as the Air Force One pilots and
2
the President‘s doctors, and this left just 88.2 The group included 6 college presidents, 6
who had been generals, 5 former governors, but only 3 who had been elected to
Congress.3
The burgeoning of White House staffs over time reflects two trends. One: Adding
people to perform added functions. When I returned to the White House in 1969, for
instance, I worked for a unit, the Urban Affairs Council, that hadn‘t existed when I left
the White House in 1961. Two: A more rapid turnover rate among staffers.4 Had
overheated White House operations produced more burnout, a different sort of person, or
the lure of more opportunities outside of government? Of the 88 at Eisenhower‘s White
House, a dozen stayed for the full eight years, among them a core of such prominent
aides as James Hagerty (press secretary), Bryce Harlow (speechwriting, legislative
relations), Gerald Morgan (legislative relations, counsel), Wilton Persons (legislative
relations, chief of staff), and Thomas Stephens (appointment secretary). Another dozen
stayed almost as long.
The demographics reflect major differences from recent staffs. The 88 were
almost all male, all white: There were three women and one African-American.5 Staffs
now are also much younger. Between 1953 and January 1961 there were only five
assistants in their twenties. I was the youngest at 25.6 Eleven were in their thirties,
including Bradley Patterson, 33, who would become the leading authority on White
House organization.7
I arrived at the White House shortly after Labor Day, 1958--having just been
mustered out the army as a private first class--to assist my Johns Hopkins mentor,
Malcolm Moos, recently named the President‘s speechwriter.8 My White House
3
impressions cover only the last two-plus years of the administration. However, I did serve
with 58 of the 88, again a reflection of Ike staffers‘ long tenure.
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Dwight Eisenhower had strong feelings about staffs and how they were expected
to work. In the first volume of his presidential memoirs, he wrote, ―For years I had been
in frequent contact with the Executive Office of the White House and I had certain ideas
about the system, or lack of system, under which it operated.‖ He would ―organize the
White House for efficiency….Organization cannot make a genius out of an
incompetent….On the other hand, disorganization can scarcely fail to result in
inefficiency and can easily lead to disaster.‖9 Motivated by such apprehensions,
Eisenhower started early by inaugurating several completely new offices that have since
become standard features of a White House staff: the chief of staff, the assistant for
national security affairs, the cabinet secretary and the staff secretary. Collectively they
would make sure that nothing fell through the cracks. These small, carefully contained
compartments would be filled with experts solely responsible for their assignments. No
White House ever had less leeway for kibitzers.10
Eisenhower also greatly upgraded the office of congressional relations. He was
fortunate to have an expert ready for duty. Major General Wilton (Jerry) Persons was a
comfortable and conservative Southerner— brother of an Alabama governor—who had
been the War Department‘s chief lobbyist during World War II, and, after retirement, had
been called back to active duty by Eisenhower when he became SHAPE commander.
4
Bryce Harlow had worked for Persons at the Pentagon and then headed the House Armed
Services Committee staff. Gerald Morgan, a Harvard-trained lawyer, had congressional
experience drafting the Taft-Hartley Act. Harlow was soon commandeered by the
President to be a speechwriter, and his slot was assumed by Jack Martin, the longtime
assistant to Senator Robert Taft, who had died in 1953.
Over time there were other changes. Morgan became the President‘s counsel in
1955. Martin was made a federal judge in 1958. And when Sherman Adams was forced
out in 1958, Persons replaced him as the chief of staff and Harlow became the head of the
congressional lobbying unit. Harlow was assisted by Jack Z. Anderson, a colorful former
California congressman (and famous pear grower), and Edward McCabe, from the House
Committee on Education and Labor, both of whom joined the White House staff in 1956.
They were joined in 1959 by Clyde Wheeler, who had been working congressional
liaison for the Secretary of Agriculture. Wheeler returned to Oklahoma to run
unsuccessfully for Congress in 1960. Two other members of the liaison staff, Earle
Chesney and Homer Gruenther, had duties that were more of the ―goodwill‖ nature, such
as taking VIPs on tours of the White House. As a group, the congressionalists cast a more
conservative shadow than other staff units, a notable division during the 1954 conflict
with Senator McCarthy.11
Sherman Adams--Governor to everyone on the staff--had served one term in the
House of Representatives. Several others also had had congressional experience.12 But
while called upon from time-to-time, they were not meant to backstop the
Persons/Harlow shop. They had jobs enough to keep them busy.
5
The modus operandi for dealing with Congress was to let the departments do the
heavy lifting. The departments‘ lobbyists had the day-to-day contact with the committees
and members and took responsibility for getting legislation passed in a form acceptable to
the President. The Persons/Harlow office only conducted a major assault on Capitol Hill
once or twice a year. As Harlow told me, ―It‘s rather axiomatic in this work that a
president cannot have too many congressional issues that are ‗presidential‘ at one time.
Otherwise none of them are presidential, and all of them suffer.‖13 According to McCabe,
presidential issues included major tax legislation, the interstate highway program, mutual
security, Pentagon reorganization, and labor-management reform.14
The departmental lobbyists gathered on Saturdays at the White House. Recalling
these sessions from when he was at Agriculture, Wheeler said, ―Bryce went around the
room and asked each of us who we had been talking to on the Hill, who was backing our
programs, and who was against us. He always let us have our say before smoothly setting
out the Eisenhower agenda and how it affected each agency.‖15 The White House staff
also prepared a detailed agenda for the President to use in his weekly meeting with the
Republican congressional leaders.16
[space]
Those who insist that behind every president there must be some master hypnotist
–-a Colonel House or chief of staff or vice president—could not have worked at a White
House. I have never met a former staffer who put any stock in Trilby/Svengali theories of
the presidency. The guiding force, hidden-hand or otherwise, is in the Oval Office.
6
Part of what defined Dwight Eisenhower was reverence for the separation of
powers, a West Point legacy. Yet high regard for The Legislature, Article I, did not
extend to members of Congress, whom Ike did not always understand or appreciate. At a
Cabinet meeting in early 1956, Brad Patterson recalls, after Eisenhower agreed to send a
message on the National Park Service to Congress, he added, ―Well, it‘s like laying
pearls before certain animals…‖17
Ike‘s natural home was in Article II, The Executive. It was the type of leadership
he had successfully practiced in the army and the university, and he was most
comfortable with and most admired other successful executives.
His first cabinet was dubbed ―8 millionaires and one plumber‖ by the New
Republic.18 (The plumber, Secretary of Labor Martin Durkin, only lasted nine months).
There were 21 departmental secretaries in Eisenhower‘s cabinet during his two terms.
Only one, Christian Herter, his second secretary of state (1959-61), had ever been elected
to Congress.19 And even Herter, like Sherman Adams, had also been a governor.20 Ike
did give cabinet status to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge when he appointed him U.S.
Representative to the UN. Lodge, his earliest congressional supporter, had just been
defeated by John Kennedy.
Where the Vice President—or the vice presidency—fit in Eisenhower‘s matrix
has an antique feel as viewed through the experiences of more than a half-century. When
Dick Cheney claimed in 2007 that he didn‘t have to comply with an executive order on
safeguarding classified information because, in fact, his office was part of the legislature,
it was greeted as a laugh-line by late night comedians. After all, wasn‘t Cheney supposed
to be President Bush‘s Svengali, the most powerful vice president in history? Yet
7
Cheney‘s contention would not have been risible to Dwight Eisenhower. The vice
presidency, he wrote in his memoirs, is not ―technically in the Executive branch of
government…not subject to presidential orders.‖21 When listing the attendees at a
meeting, he locates Vice President Nixon as coming ―from the Senate.‖22 Since he placed
the vice presidency in the legislative branch, everything Nixon did for him was on ―a
volunteer basis.‖23 Unlike present-day vice presidents, Nixon did not have an office in
the White House. He was housed at the Capitol, as was his staff, and their paychecks
came from the Senate budget. Nixon was often at the White House for meetings of the
cabinet, national security council, legislative leaders, and at other times, but he was not a
presence in the West Wing as is today‘s vice president.
[space]
Dwight Eisenhower was entitled to have been more put off by the ways of
Congress than any president since Ulysses S. Grant, the last elected president before
Eisenhower not to have been a professional politician; that is, not to have first been a
member of Congress, a governor, or in a president‘s cabinet.
At his first weekly meeting with the Republican House and Senate leaders, less
than a week after his inauguration in 1953, he tells them of his intention to redeem the
pledges of the party platform and his campaign. ―To my astonishment, I discovered that
some of the men in the room could not seem to understand the seriousness with which I
regarded our platform‘s provisions, and were amazed by my uncompromising assertion
that I was going to do my best to fulfill every promise to which I had been a party.‖ Thus
8
was his presidential introduction to those he called ―practical politicians‖ (two words he
surrounded with quotation marks) ―who laughed off platforms as traps to catch voters.‖24
His next ―sad‖ lesson came when making an appointment that required Senate
confirmation. His choice for ambassador to India, former Nebraska Governor Val
Peterson, was blocked by his state‘s senators. ―Their objections, they told me, did not
involve his personal qualifications or character.‖ It was strictly political. ―This seemed
indefensible to me. I told both that I emphatically disapproved of their attitude but I was
not going to embarrass Val Peterson and would appoint him to some responsible position
where their attitude would be ineffective and his influence more pronounced.‖25
Eisenhower noted in his diary that he was appalled by the ―amount of caution
approaching fright that seems to govern the action of most politicians.‖26 After more
experiences with congressmen, he wrote, ―These Legislative meetings were sometimes
tiresome. Indeed, after a long and wearying discussion with the Legislative leaders one
day, I remarked it was about time all of us did something about strengthening whatever
sense of humor we might possess….I knew that a sense of humor, though not a guarantee
of success, was at least indispensable to sanity.‖ He begins the next paragraph: ―But it
was not always easy to laugh.‖27
What should have been troubling is that his party had a majority in only the first
two years of his presidency. However, as he told a friend in 1953, ―The particular
legislators who are most often opposing Administration views are of the majority party.‖
(He italicized majority.) In this category he put Republican Senators Henry Dworshak
and Herman Welker of Idaho, Hugh Butler of Nebraska, George W. Malone of Nevada,
William Jenner of Indiana, and Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin.28 He could have added
9
John Bricker of Ohio and Styles Bridges of New Hampshire. Of 13 senators who voted
against Charles Bohlen, his nominee for Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 11 were
Republicans.29
There were some grim experiences for Eisenhower in his relations with Congress,
notably when McCarthy turned his vitriol on Ike‘s beloved army and during an attempt—
called the Bricker Amendment—to limit presidential treaty-making powers. But overall
the President‘s legislative priorities fared well, founded on a remarkably harmonious
relationship with Democratic leaders Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson.
Yet, as told by William Ewald, there was a subtext to the Eisenhower-RayburnJohnson trio that tells a great deal about Eisenhower‘s charm, cunning and skills. Ewald
helped Eisenhower write his memoirs. Then Ewald, a former White House speechwriter
trained in English literature at Harvard, wrote his own book, a fascinating exercise in
historiography as he explores what went into Eisenhower‘s memoirs and what did not.
Ike told Ewald that he hadn‘t trusted Johnson or Rayburn. On Johnson: ―That fellow‘s
such a phony.‖ On Rayburn: ―That fellow would double-cross you.‖30 But in print
Eisenhower preferred to tamp down his irritation with legislators, and find reasons to
praise them. ―You can‘t trust Mundt,‖ says Eisenhower of the Republican senator from
South Dakota; this assessment is in Ewald‘s book, not Eisenhower‘s.31
[space]
Because our White House was so compartmentalized, and we were so intent on
not minding our colleagues‘ business, the Staff Mess during the Eisenhower years may
10
have played a more important role in creating an atmosphere of collegiality than in other
administrations.
The Mess was run by the navy, hence the name. As described by Robert Gray, the
Cabinet Secretary (1958-61): ―It was located underneath the President‘s office in the
basement-level area…. At several tables for four and six, thirty-six diners could be
accommodated. Serving hours were twelve noon to 2 p.m. There were no assigned seats,
and when a staff member entered the room he could join existing groups or start a new
table….Members of the staff joined this exclusive club by purchasing a mess share. They
were charged on a per-meal basis, plus a 10 per cent override which went to the staff fund
to pay for Christmas, anniversary, and birthday gifts.‖32 Bill Ewald adds: ―A staff
member picked up his napkin ring at a shelf to the right as he entered, and he sat down
anyplace except at the one table with a titled chair, reserved for Staff Chief Sherman
Adams and his guests. After lunch one returned the napkin to its ring: it was washed once
a week. Most staff members‘ favorite memento of their White House service is that
simple wooden ring bearing one‘s name and ‗White House Mess.‘ Everyone wore a
business suit except on Saturdays, the day for a sports jacket.‖ 33
For two years I ate there almost every day. The food was good, inexpensive,
convenient, and it was a treat to be educated by the likes of George Kistiakowsky, the
great chemist, who was the President‘s science adviser; Clarence Randall, former
chairman of Inland Steel and the President‘s adviser on international trade, who became a
special friend; Andy Goodpaster, already wise in his early forties, the future NATO
commander, who would come out of retirement to rebuild West Point‘s reputation after a
cheating scandal; or Press Secretary Jim Hagerty, a man of firm opinions on everything.
11
After awhile I started to jot down our conversations when I returned to my office.
My notes are of jokes, recollections, oddities of the day, more serious on days when
Eisenhower had a press conference and the audio tape was played for us while we ate.
Our talk would not be mistaken for a think tank seminar. Yet this does help answer the
question of what Congress looked like from inside the Eisenhower White House. When
we talked of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, it was because they were running for
president, not because they were senators. In over a year I recorded just one serious
conversation about Congress (with Ed McCabe of the legislative relations staff).
This absence of Congress as a topic of conversation reflected, in part, how
Eisenhower cordoned off congressional relations from other operations. This is not the
way it had worked under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, which is exactly what
Eisenhower had in mind when he designed his staff system.
Then too Eisenhower‘s men, in the manner of their boss, thought of themselves as
executives, the Article II folks; they did not wish to be mistaken for coming from Article
I, a somewhat louche crowd. In choosing his top White House aide, Ike used the model
he appreciated and mastered in a long military career. He would love to have had Bedell
Smith, Lucius Clay or Alfred Gruenther as his chief of staff, except that he knew it would
cause ―suspicion of excessive military influence.‖34 So he chose the similarly inclined
Sherman Adams. While Adams had a difficult reputation on the outside, he was deeply
respected within the White House. Staff conformed to the system under which they
would advance.
The sharp edge between the legislative and executive articles in the Constitution
as a governing principle for staffing the White House would start to bend modestly under
12
John Kennedy. He was a senator, but a backbencher, whose time in office, at least since
1956, had been dedicated to running for the president. The personnel curve then bowed
when Lyndon Johnson, the Ultimate Legislator, became the President of the United
States, merging characteristics that distinguish a congressional staff from a presidential
staff.
[space]
Personality and resume will always play some part in where people fit into the
government‘s workforce. But more determining is demand. In 1960, Eisenhower‘s last
year, there were 451 top political appointees in the executive agencies, according to Paul
C. Light‘s careful count. In 1992, he measured 2,393, a 430 percent increase.35 In 1960,
there were 6,866 staff members in congressional offices, according to R. Eric Peterson of
the Congressional Research Service. With a sharp increase, partly pushed by the
Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, congressional staffs grew to 17,396 by 2007.36
The creation of aggressive public policy schools in these years would help meet the
demand.
The lesson was that careers at the political level need not be limited by Article I or
Article II. Each new administration, with a plethora of appointments to make, especially
if there is a party change, brings new possibilities for congressional staffers and others as
well as possibilities on Capitol Hill for those from the outgoing administration. Judging
from those around me—a son whose career has been on Capitol Hill and in an agency,
his friends, my students, my interns—I see people who think of themselves as
―governmentalists,‖ with career moves determined by opportunity and circumstance,
13
rather than by where a job fits in the constitutional framework. For them Congress will
never look like it looked to us from inside the Eisenhower White House.
Epilogue
What happened to the Eisenhower 88?
By noon, January 20, 1961, Jerry Persons had his bags packed and was eager to
resume fishing in Florida. The Eisenhower staff was older than most White House
staffs—as the President was older than most presidents—and so there would be an aboveaverage number of retirements.
Some of the 88—those who had served for some period during two terms—had
already left government. Gabriel Hauge, the President‘s initial Assistant for Economic
Affairs, was now the chairman of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. Howard Pyle
was president of the National Safety Council. Charles Willis, one of the young men who
had created ―Citizens for Eisenhower‖ in 1952, was the head of Alaska Airlines. Emmet
Hughes, the brilliant first term speechwriter, would write two bitter books about the
administration. Eisenhower felt betrayed and when crafting his memoirs, according to
Ewald, chose to withdraw Hughes‘ paternity from the five most important words of his
1952 campaign: ―I shall go to Korea.‖37
But overwhelmingly Ike‘s former assistants were devoted to their president and
would spend their concluding years recalling—and boring their friends—with tales of
State Dinners, watching the 4th of July fireworks from the South Lawn, and lunches in the
Mess.
14
The academics returned to the academy: Kistiakowsky to Harvard, and then in
retirement became an eloquent advocate for banning nuclear weapons; Don Paarlberg, the
agricultural economist, who had coordinated the fledgling Food for Peace program, went
back to Purdue; Henry Wallich to Yale, until joining the Federal Reserve Board in 1974;
Raymond Saulnier, Barnard, lived to be 100, and was photographed for Vanity Fair at 98.
Phillip Areeda began a new career as a Harvard Law School professor. He died in 1995
as he was completing the eleventh volume of his life work on antitrust law, of which
Stephen Breyer remarked that most lawyers would rather have the support of ―two
paragraphs of Areeda on antitrust than four courts of appeals and three Supreme Court
Justices.‖38 Allen Wallis became president of the University of Rochester. Malcolm
Moos became president of the University of Minnesota.
Two staffers stayed in Washington via term appointments. John Bragdon, a
classmate of Ike‘s at West Point, was put on the Civil Aeronautics Board. Robert
Hampton was given a minority seat on the Civil Service Commission and elevated to
chairman when President Nixon took office. Several others returned to Washington with
the Nixon presidency, notably Maurice Stans as Secretary of Commerce and Arthur
Burns as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Fewer Eisenhower people remained in Washington, however, than had been or
was to be the case with other White House staffs. The primary exceptions were those who
had been in congressional liaison. Gerald Morgan joined a law firm, Jack Anderson
returned to Capitol Hill to work for the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Edward
McCabe became the founding chairman of Sallie Mae, the Student Loan Marketing
Association. Bryce Harlow opened a small office for Procter & Gamble and became the
15
gold standard for responsible corporate representation. The major nonprofit foundation in
this field is named in his honor. He also became Eisenhower‘s most trusted adviser on all
political matters.
No member of the Eisenhower 88 would go on to serve in Congress.39
STEPHEN HESS is Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Brookings Institution. He wishes to
thank his Eisenhower staff colleagues, Brad Patterson and Bill Ewald, for their ―additions
and corrections.‖
________________________________________________________________________
1
Frederic Fox (1917-1981), a Congregational minister; White House staff, 1956-61, his duties largely
involved writing presidential messages. James Lambie (1914-1999), with Eisenhower from the 1952
campaign through two terms in the White House, his duties largely involved public information programs.
Their Staff Book included a summary of major events, a list of all the White House secretaries,
photographs of the permanent White House staff, such as the chief telephone operator (Grace Earle),
carpenter (Isaac Avery) and chief of the messenger service (Orris Nash). Each copy of the book was
numbered; mine was 52.
2
Among the 88, I include three military officers whose jobs were not military in nature: Staff Secretaries
Paul (Pete) Carroll (1953-54) and Andrew Goodpaster (1954-61), and Assistant Staff Secretary John
Eisenhower (1958-61). A case also can be made for RalphWilliams (1958-61), Assistant Naval Aide, who
was importantly involved in speechwriting.
3
College Presidents: Milton Eisenhower (Johns Hopkins), Arthur Fleming (Ohio Wesleyan), Gordon
Gray (University of North Carolina), James Killian (MIT), Kevin McCann (Defiance), Harold Stassen
(University of Pennsylvania). Generals: John Bragdon, Edward Curtis, Robert Cutler, Wilton Persons,
16
Elwood Quesada, Howard Snyder. Governors: Sherman Adams (New Hampshire), Leo Hoegh (Iowa), Val
Peterson (Nebraska), Howard Pyle (Arizona), Harold Stassen (Minnesota).
4
See Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, ―West Wing Shuffle,‖ Washington Post, April 2, 2006; also Matthew J.
Dickinson and Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, ―Explaining Increasing Turnover Among Presidential Advisers,
1929-1997,‖ The Journal of Politics, May 2002, pp. 434-448.
5
Mary Jane McCaffree, White House Social Secretary, 1953-61; Anne Wheaton, Associate Press
Secretary, 1957-61; Ann Whitman, Secretary to the President, 1953-61. Fred Morrow, Administrative
Officer, 1955-61. Morrow‘s diary has been published as Black Man in the White House (Macfadden
Books, 1963).
6
The others were Stephen Benedict, 26 (1952 campaign to 1955), Douglas Price, 28 (1952 campaign,
White House 1957-61), William Ewald, 29 (1954-56), H. Roemer McPhee, 29 (1954-61).
7
See his The Ring of Power (Basic Books, 1988), The White House Staff (Brookings, 2000), and To
Serve the President (Brookings, 2008). A career civil servant, Patterson was detailed to the White House
Secretariat in 1954 and became Assistant Cabinet Secretary in 1955.
8
Professor Moos arranged to have me paid by the Republican National Committee for the first four
months so that I didn‘t formally go on the White House payroll until February, 1959. The first time some of
my words were spoken by President Eisenhower was September 26, 1958, ―Address at the Fort Ligonier
Bicentennial Celebration, Ligonier, Pennsylvania.‖
9
Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate for Change (Doubleday, 1963), pp. 87 and 114.
10
Yet Ike, on occasion, created a White House assignment when he perceived a deficiency in the Cabinet.
This was especially true in foreign policy where he added special assistants C.D. Jackson and Nelson
Rockefeller to try to get the ―bold, new ideas‖ that were not coming from Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles. See Stephen Hess, Organizing the Presidency (3rd edition, Brookings, 2002), p. 62.
11
See William Bragg Ewald, Jr., Eisenhower the President (Prentice-Hall, 1981), p. 124.
12
Cabinet Secretary Max Rabb, 1954-58, had been an assistant to Massachusetts Senators Henry Cabot
Lodge and Sinclair Weeks before World War II. Fred Seaton served less than a year in the Senate by
appointment. He was on the White House staff, 1955-56, before Eisenhower made him Secretary of the
Interior. Appointments Secretary Tom Stephens was with John Foster Dulles during his four-month career
as a senator from New York in 1949. And Oregon Congressman Harris Ellsworth, defeated in 1956, was
made Chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, 1957-59, a job that came with the title of
President‘s Advisor on Personnel Management.
13
Harlow interview with author, 1976.
14
Cited in Bob Burke and Ralph G. Thompson, Bryce Harlow (Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2000), p.
96.
15
Ibid, p. 95.
16
For details on Eisenhower‘s legislative liaison operation, see Ken Collier, Between the Branches: The
White House Office of Legislative Affairs (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), pp. 29-56.
17
Letter to author, December 12, 2009.
18
―Washington Wire,‖ December 15, 1952, p. 3.
17
19
As a comparison, there were four members of Congress in President Obama‘s initial cabinet and he
made offers to three others.
20
A bit of cabinet trivia: The Eisenhower cabinet also included three men who had been appointed to the
Senate: John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State (1953-59), was appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy
caused by the resignation of Robert Wagner of New York and served from July 7, 1949, to November 8,
1949; Sinclair Weeks, Secretary of Commerce (1953-58), was appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy
caused by the resignation of Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and served from February 8, 1944 to
December 19, 1944; Fred Seaton, Secretary of the Interior (1956-61), was appointed to the Senate to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska and served from December 10, 1951 to
November 4, 1952.
21
Mandate for Change, pp. 540-41.
22
Ibid., p. 194.
23
Dwight Eisenhower, Waging Peace (Doubleday, 1965), p. 6.
24
Mandate for Change, pp. 194-95.
25
Ibid., p. 119. Peterson was then named Federal Civil Defense Administrator. Eisenhower goes on to
propose ―an amendment to the Constitution providing that any nomination within the Executive branch
only—excluding judges, appointees to regulatory commissions, and the like—should be automatic unless,
by a two-thirds majority, the Senate should reject it.‖
26
Quoted in Ken Collier, ―Eisenhower and Congress: The Autopilot Presidency,‖ in Presidential Studies
Quarterly, Spring 1994, p. 321.
27
28
Ibid., p. 300.
Ibid., 193.
29
Ibid., p. 213. The senators were John Bricker, Styles Bridges, Everett Dirksen, Henry Dworshak, Barry
Goldwater, Bourke Hickenlooper, George Malone, Joseph McCarthy, Karl Mundt, Andrew Schoeppel, and
Herman Welker.
30
See Ewald, pp. 27-28.
31
Ibid, p. 134.
32
Robert Keith Gray, Eighteen Acres Under Glass (Doubleday, 1962), p. 34.
33
Ewald, op. cit., p. 4.
34
Mandate for Change, pp. 88-89.
35
Paul C. Light, Thickening Government (Brookings, 1995), p. 192.
36
R. Eric Peterson, ―Legislative Branch Staffing, 1954-2007,‖ Congressional Research Service Report
R40056, October 15, 2008, pp. 1-4.
37
38
Ewald, op. cit., pp. 224-5.
David Binder, ―Phillip Areeda, Harvard Law Professor and Antitrust Expert, Dies at 65,‖ New York
Times, December 27, 1995.
18
39
There were, however, three political appointees from the departments who were elected to Congress:
Ted Sevens (Interior), Steve Horn (Labor), and John V. Lindsay (Justice).